November was a busy month for our team – with a visit to Colombia and New York – but a small contingent of our team also visited our program in Abaco Island of The Bahamas which has focused on the reconstruction of post-Hurricane Dorian.

Hurricane Dorian struck The Bahamas with tremendously powerful winds in September of 2019, leaving many of the islands destroyed, and about 10,000 students displaced and unable to attend school. The hurricane was the most powerful storm every recorded in The Bahamas and the island is still recovering two years later. With the pandemic hitting just a few months afterwards, reconstruction efforts came to a halt for the safety of those working on the project as well as Abaco’s inhabitants. When we had touched base with our partners All Hands and Hearts a year after Dorian, the protracted effects of the pandemic continued to hamper reconstruction efforts.

Abaco is still in the process of rebuilding and scars of the storm’s impact are hard to miss over two years later. Rusted cars, overturned boats, concrete rubble, and mangled steel scattered alongside the road and large piles of debris in residential neighborhoods. Also impossible to ignore are signs of rebuilding, families working on their roofs, crews cleaning wreckage from the ocean, the hardware store is the busiest place in town. Families who were forced to flee after the hurricane are coming back, taking stock of their losses and reestablishing themselves in their communities.

MI Americas established a partnership with Disaster Relief NGO All Hands and Hearts shortly after the hurricane and have supported their efforts to rebuild schools with support from local and international volunteers.  In addition to the original two schools – St. Francis de Sales (a Catholic school), Every Child Counts (ECC, an educational facility for children with special needs) – we have added a third school to our project, Little Darlings Academy (LDA), a kindergarten in central Abaco. MI Americas, in partnership with All Hands and Hearts, is supporting the reconstruction of this school.

It was important to MI Americas to support the reconstruction of primary educational facilities because of the dire context in which Abaco finds itself: only two of the existing 18 kindergartens are operational after the pandemic. Little Darlings is particularly important because it serves a cross-section of Abaco’s population, including significant representation from the Haitian community which is quite marginalized within Abaco. The school is committed to making kindergarten education affordable and has provided scholarships to children whose families are in need.

Kieran O’Sullivan, Program Development Specialist leading All Hands and Hearts recovery efforts in Abaco, has observed the impact that partnerships with MI Americas and other organizations have had in helping the community pull together and get back to a state of normalcy after their lives were turned upside down by the hurricane.

“The support from [MI Americas] has been massive and it has allowed us to build one of the best schools on the island, Little Darlings Academy. Because of the high quality of the construction and materials, the school is able to receive a certification to act as a hurricane shelter for the community. So that support not only means that 150 students and 6 teachers will have a school to attend, but many hundreds more local residents will have a disaster resilient hurricane shelter for the future.”

Little Darlings, like ECC, is a safe haven for the Abaco community – not only for the children, but also for their teachers, as Mr. Gary Lewis from ECC told us. Growing up in Abaco and attending ECC as a student, “having the ability to come back and give [his] service to ECC is a blessing”. Mr. Lewis is thrilled to be back at ECC engaging with his students, and he is also working with All hands all Hearts to rebuild his home.

Little Darlings finally reopened on October 12^th of this year, and as Principal Christine Bostwick tells us, it’s been so wonderful to have the kids back. Virtual learning was difficult on them, particularly the little ones, but being able to come back has been “essential not only for academic reasons, but also for the social aspect of the school environment”.

“Recovering from the storm has been a journey, but what has made that journey easier is people who don’t even know us, they were so eager to assist us to get back to a state of normalcy. It has given me such a spirit of thankfulness to know that people left their families, left their homes, just to make sure we were okay and help us recover. Every time I think about that I have to offer a prayer”, says Little Darlings Principal Christine Bostwick.

As many studies have demonstrated the incredibly positive impact early-childhood education has on the trajectory of an individuals’ life, MI Americas is committed to making an important contribution to the reconstruction of schools in Abaco. With our incredible partners at All Hands and Hearts, we’re eager to see this reconstruction through and support the Abaco community’s better tomorrow.

*As of 2021, Malteser International Americas no longer funds nor works with All Hands and Hearts, as a result of disturbing allegations regarding All Hands and Hearts’ conduct with volunteers. MI Americas will no longer work with the organization in any capacity.